gruel vs mess

gruel

verb
  • ejaculate 

  • To exhaust, use up, disable 

  • to punish 

noun
  • A thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill. 

  • punishment 

  • something that lacks substance 

  • semen 

mess

verb
  • To make soiled by ejaculating. 

  • To eat (with others). 

  • To screw around with, to bother, to be annoying to. 

  • To supply with a mess. 

  • To belong to a mess. 

  • To make soiled by defecating. 

  • To take meals with a mess. 

  • To throw into disorder or to ruin. 

  • To interfere. 

noun
  • A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding. 

  • A building or room in which mess is eaten. 

  • A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table. 

  • The milk given by a cow at one milking. 

  • A large quantity or number. 

  • Excrement. 

  • A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck. 

  • A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool. 

  • A group of iguanas. 

  • A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner). 

How often have the words gruel and mess occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )